Throw Away Your KDDI International Cards

Being the computer nerd I am, I’m always looking for new and interesting programs to help me in my daily tasks. It is not often that I find one worth blogging to the world about but this program will be of great value to you. The program is Yahoo Instant messenger and allows you to have a video/audio conference with others using the same IM service.

I have been using IM programs since ICQ first developed the idea, was still owned by an Israeli company and ran on the Windows 95 OS. As time went by I began using AOL and MSN instant messengers. However, MSN eventually won out due to the ease of conferencing with my overseas friends with video and audio. I was a big fan of Netmeeting and had no problems getting even my mother to feel comfortable with it. However, as the OS became more complicated, security concerns (firewalls and such) began to create connectivity problems, netmeeting was discontinued and I lost contact with my own family since we couldn’t get both the audio and video to work.

However, yesterday a friend with a new computer (and camera) and I began trying to video conference again and I’ve found that Yahoo IM simply destroys the competition. The video is superb and connectivity is no problem unlike the MSN which constantly tells me there is a network problem when trying to make an audio connection. The only catch is that you both must be using the English version of the program. That is to say, you cannot connect if one is using the Japanese version while the other has the English version. I tried to install the Japanese version at first on my pc but my computer could not read the Japanese written into the program and all I got were symbols and one messy looking interface.

Therefore, those expensive KDDI cards from 7-11 which only give me 40 minutes for 5,000 yen are now no longer needed!! I will encourage all my friends to download this program and thus my living an ex-pat life will no longer be an obstacle in keeping in contact with my friends from around the world.